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Multiple reports say that the House will drop the “deem and pass” strategy and instead hold three separate votes on Sunday – a vote on the rule, a vote on reconciliation, and a vote on the Senate bill. Dennis Cardoza, who criticized the “deem and pass” strategy of consolidating two votes into one, praised the Democratic leadership for taking that away. “Sanity prevailed,” Cardoza said.
Given that the worry about Cardoza mainly came from his issues with deem and pass, I would guess that he’ll come home and vote for the bill now. But we’ll exercise caution.
The right-wing freakout over “deem and pass” was massively hypocritical, but once they pushed the media into calling a perfectly normal procedure unconstitutional, the utility of doing it faded away. One wonders what Republicans will freak out about now.
…Lori Montgomery has a story up now.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Saturday that the House would take three votes Sunday: first, on a resolution that will set the terms of debate; second, on a package of amendments to the Senate bill that have been demanded by House members; and third, on the Senate bill itself.
Van Hollen, who has been working on the issue with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said House leaders concluded that that order — approving the amendments before approving the Senate bill — makes clear that the House intends to modify the Senate bill and not approve the Senate bill itself.
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The Rules Committee is still progressing along as if they are going to make a deem and pass rule.
Now the Committee is taking a break for House votes and Dems will get a visit from Obama
“The right wing freakout”? All Americans should be concerned about this, especially liberals. What you unleash today will come back to haunt you tomorrow. Is it just bad when conservatives do it?
It was stupid of the republicans to make such a big deal of the technicalities and not focus on the actual legislation – will they have to resort to actually making intellectual arguments now? By covering their ears and repeatedly yelling “start over, clean slate, la la la I can’t hear you”, they’re partly to blame for this bill.
Could this move Lynch back into the “Yes” column, or at least the undecideds? Also, if they forgo “deem and pass,” do they risk losing any votes or picking any additional ones up?
I don’t think it will matter to undecided folks, but it makes the entire entire vote less “wonkish”. It also hurts the right, who was making inroads with anti-DC independents over “deem and pass”. The arguing point just evaporated, guess tea partiers are going to have to rip up all of those protest signs!
One other question-they say they are going to vote on the reconciliation package before the Senate bill. Are they allowed to do that? If the package is not approved, will they still vote on the Senate bill? Thanks for the help.
I actually will be pleased to have the House Progressive Caucus on the record with regard to the Senate health care reform bill. Woolsey, Grijalva, Kucinich, et al, should be able to offer some interesting soundbites as they maneuver, squirming tortuously, in an effort to celebrate this “achievement”. Hell…that’ll almost (but, not really) be worth the price of admission!